The Sun's new editor Rebekah Wade has fired a broadside at Piers Morgan, just days after the Daily Mirror editor declared peace in the tabloid circulation wars.

She has come up with a new advertising campaign highlighting the Mirror's declining circulation revenues under Morgan's leadership.

The advert is a mock-up of a poster for the classic Alfred Hitchcock film, The 39 Steps, with an exhausted-looking Morgan appearing as the lead, Richard Hannay.

Next to him are portraits of Philip Graf, the outgoing chief executive of the Mirror's parent group, Trinity Mirror, and of Victor Blank, the group's chairman.

The title of the film has been changed to The 39 Declining Steps, with the sub-heading "The sad story of a terminally ill newspaper."

Referring to ABC figures for the period between July and December last year, the advert crows about "the 39th consecutive fall, the lowest ever recorded circulation in the history of the ABC".

The tongue-in-cheek dig at the Daily Mirror and its editor could trigger a renewal of hostilities after Morgan buried the hatchet with the Sun earlier this week, following the resignation of David Yelland.

"You will all be doubtless heartily relieved to hear that the war with the Sun is now officially over. We've seen off two of their editors in the last seven years, and frankly it seems churlish to continue hammering them as they attempt to rebuild their clearly rather troubled business," he said.

In an email to staff, he described Wade, who took over the editor's chair on Tuesday, as "a good friend of mine and a very good journalist".

But Wade has tested the strength of that bond with today's advert.

In the film the hero - played by Robert Donat - is wrongly accused of murder and ends up handcuffed to an icy blonde, immortalised by Madeleine Carroll.

The Sun advert also features Morgan handcuffed to a blonde woman who is clutching a copy of the Mirror.